Instead of focusing on this; why don't they focus on a way to eliminate some of those damn days-off during the opening round. Round 1 of the playoffs takes like 4 months to play. Now that the Pistons are contenders to make the playoffs, I worry that a 'cerebral player' like Stuckey might forget what team he's playing against during the span between games 1 & 2.

I think the 2-3-2 rule was more to reduce travel. With the charter planes and the unlimited dollars in today's NBA, an extra flight or two is no big deal.

Remember the Piston-Portland series in '90? After the Blazers split the first 2 games in Detroit, they figured the series was over since they got to host the next 3 games. Who would have thought the Pistons would go to Portland and win the next three?

This article goes way overboard on the Euro hype aspect. While true, it just makes the article imbalanced. They barely touched on Darko's career, which did exist. They mentioned that it did exist, but were extremely light on details. Further, hey, if someone is out of the NBA, that person may have made a choice to leave, rather than be washed up. In Darko's case, he left for family reasons. Indeed, NY was counting on Darko to be a big part of their rotation prior to this past season. But he had to go home, for his family.

Just how bad was Darko? A very, very talented player. We just did not play him. Now, again, they glossed over some special circumstances. He was drafted by the team that won the championship that year. So Darko got a ring, year one. Not bad to start a career. Next season, we could have used him in that last quarter of the SA series. But really, it was the lack of any legitimate big that killed us, and kept us from winning a 2nd straight title. If Darko had played even minimally that 2nd season, he would have been more than ready to play Duncan a few minutes to save the day when the rest of our bigs found themselves in deep foul trouble. Indeed, I say even if he was just thrown out there with no practice for a decade, he would have still done better than the option we used to defend Duncan at that point - a rail thin Prince who had no business being in that situation. Darko was one quarter from winning two straight titles to start his career. And very, very little from winning maybe four straight. (Like a coach who did not lose interest after winning his first title.)

Also, the author was being real polite about the "disinterest" Larry Brown showed to Darko. Larry Brown showed to Darko a lot. Pure hatred, and let Darko know of his hate at every possible moment.

Back to talent. Darko was not just reported to be able to hit any shot from anywhere in the gym, it was witnessed by the staff as they watched him work out for us before we drafted him. And by me, who liked to show up real early for games so I never missed the players out there during warmups. Nobody else could do what Darko could do as far as outside shooting. Darko did not need to take a few shots to get range. He did not have to square up to the basket. He did not even have to slow down. He could just be running along the 3 point line and turn and swish one thru the net. Incredible. I saw him do this 8 times. One try only, at eight different games. Never anything but net. Now, just to contrast this, I have seen some pretty good shooting. Stack could quickly go from spot to spot around the perimeter, and hit his first 3 attempt at each spot. No range finding needed. But at least he was taking time to properly square up at each spot. Jon Barry could hit halfcourt set shots all day long and never miss one. Fantastic, but they were set shots. Squared up, no jumping. Set shots. What Darko did was simply unparallelled.

Now, why did not Darko play a bit of small forward for us. Very quick guy. Can't miss outside shot. But you might want to ask a simpler question. Why did Prince never have a proper backup at small forward? Just not allowed on this team for many years. Nothing was allowed to challenge Tay's minutes at small forward. Nothing. The political feed we got from Brown on that - that Darko was destined to be a center, and so Darko was not to shoot outside shots, never play any small forward. Of course, he conveniently just would not play him anywhere.

Next subject. The top five in that draft. For sure, the draft produced great talents that year. So maybe it makes Darko not the best pick we could have taken. But lets examine that. We never needed Darko those first few years after we drafted him. We could have used him for depth, but we could have picked up one of several centers for depth and been just fine. How about Bosh. I watched Bosh, on an every game basis, his first few years in the league. Brown would have hated the guy. Way too much outside shooting and way to little fighting inside as a center should. Getting drafted by us and playing behind Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace would have been a horrid start to his career.

Why not Melo then. Again, we already had Tay at small forward. With nobody allowed to play behind him to challenge him for minutes. Why not Wade then. To sit our bench and play behind Billups and Rip? James, again, a small forward. We, as the championship team, did not need any of them to win championships. With just a bit more depth, we should have won about 4 in a row - instead of what happened, going cheap, cheap, cheap, doing nothing but cap moves after 2004.

So forget about who we could have drafted. Was Darko really a bust? Hmm, he had starts at Memphis, Orlando, Minnesota. And just last season, NY was planning on him being a big part of things before he went away to take care of his family. Yes, there have been draft busts, but Darko was not one of them. There were guys drafted high, and simply never amounted to anything at all in the NBA. Darko, a guy who started at least some for a few teams can not be called a draft bust, sorry.

At Darko's best, one game he stood down Ming totally on the defensive end while scoring all over him on the offensive end. Some bust. No bust ever did something like that. (Unless you count some that simply got injured and never got to play but half a season.) Darko did have an injury plagued career, but he also had lots of good moments. Howard and he were quite an exciting tandem to watch for many, many games in Orlando. Me, I count myself as being blessed to have been able to follow Darko's career thru NBA League Pass over the years. A very talented player indeed. One who could defend, rebound, pass the ball. And sadly, one who could have shot lights out, if he had ever been given a chance to early in his career.

Now, though glossed over, the author did point out some true things. One, Darko could have had a much more successful career if picked by a team that could actually use him right away. Also, the racist thing. Way too true in my opinion, that what race you are, to this day, makes a difference of who gets playing time for the Pistons. Rather than talent. Maybe harsh, but that is my opinion.

Darko was already sulking by year 2, he wasn't going to be satisfied being stashed away to mature. The Pistons acted on too little info, and people promoted this kid as being more amazing than he was. The quality of competition he was playing against in Serbia wasn't even top level EU, and he wasn't even a superstar in that league.

It's the same thing all of us saw with Darko over the years. He grew an NBA body, and he had some skills, but his attitude was rubbish after he developed a sense of entitlement.

If anyone in the NBA thought Darko could help his team, he's be in the NBA. GMs tend to overvalue talent not undervalue it. Darko's not in the NBA because the pressure of expectations and his own sense of entitlement have made it impossible for him to function like a regular, professional player.

That's what's missing in a lot of your analysis Lee. You look at the raw physical skills, some slowmo tape, but what a guy has going on between his ears is why the Lindsey Hunters of the NBA have longer and more successful careers than the Darko Milicics.

At the end of the day, the numbers, the seasons, the rings, etc speak for themselves. The couldas, wouldas, shouldas are for the Austin Dayes, and the Sammy Mejias and the retired-early Darko Milicics. No one talks about woulda-coulda-shoulda for 99% of guys who get into the NBA. They just play or disappear. It is not perfect, but it is a meritocracy.

Darko was already sulking by year 2, he wasn't going to be satisfied being stashed away to mature. The Pistons acted on too little info, and people promoted this kid as being more amazing than he was. The quality of competition he was playing against in Serbia wasn't even top level EU, and he wasn't even a superstar in that league.

It's the same thing all of us saw with Darko over the years. He grew an NBA body, and he had some skills, but his attitude was rubbish after he developed a sense of entitlement.

If anyone in the NBA thought Darko could help his team, he's be in the NBA. GMs tend to overvalue talent not undervalue it. Darko's not in the NBA because the pressure of expectations and his own sense of entitlement have made it impossible for him to function like a regular, professional player.

That's what's missing in a lot of your analysis Lee. You look at the raw physical skills, some slowmo tape, but what a guy has going on between his ears is why the Lindsey Hunters of the NBA have longer and more successful careers than the Darko Milicics.

At the end of the day, the numbers, the seasons, the rings, etc speak for themselves. The couldas, wouldas, shouldas are for the Austin Dayes, and the Sammy Mejias and the retired-early Darko Milicics. No one talks about woulda-coulda-shoulda for 99% of guys who get into the NBA. They just play or disappear. It is not perfect, but it is a meritocracy.

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FYI, NY wanted him last season. He left for family reasons. His attitude was fine. Injury problems plagued his career. Never for a moment attitude.

His attitude was fine. Injury problems plagued his career. Never for a moment attitude.

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I will say it again. If Darko could play in the NBA, he would be in the NBA. The fact that he doesn't stick with a team more than a year, and he doesn't get minutes, and he is out of the league, really doesn't build the case that he would be a very good NBA player. I suppose all of those organizations, Boston, NY etc are all dumb. Maybe. Maybe everyone in the NBA is dumb except Darko.

At the end of the day, there aren't going to be 50 asterisks about bloodflow, or cultural assimilation issues, or family problems, or racism or injuries on his story. He's going to forever be known as a guy who didn't have much of an NBA career and was surrounded by potential and likely hall of famers in that same draft. Because that is what actually happened.

I will say it again. If Darko could play in the NBA, he would be in the NBA. The fact that he doesn't stick with a team more than a year, and he doesn't get minutes, and he is out of the league, really doesn't build the case that he would be a very good NBA player. I suppose all of those organizations, Boston, NY etc are all dumb. Maybe. Maybe everyone in the NBA is dumb except Darko.

At the end of the day, there aren't going to be 50 asterisks about bloodflow, or cultural assimilation issues, or family problems, or racism or injuries on his story. He's going to forever be known as a guy who didn't have much of an NBA career and was surrounded by potential and likely hall of famers in that same draft. Because that is what actually happened.

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Gee, so that is your argument. Lets review. Darko got drafted in July 03. Until October 12, 2012, he was on a team. And a contributor to each team he was on save ours. So by your argument, Darko was a player for nine years, since he was on a team. But now that he has gone off to help his family when they need him, he is not a player. Your argument is real weak, and presupposes that none of those organizations that had him had any use for him. That is wrong. Further, do the math, he was on teams more than one year if he had a ten year career with 5 different teams. So whats your point. You don't like Darko. I get that. But to call him a draft bust? One more time, a guy who starts on four NBA teams over a 10 year career is not much of a draft bust.

I am disappointed that after listening to the Darko fans tell us for years we would see when he left Detroit and got away from the evil Larry Brown, we still don't get to say we were right, because there is an endless litany of excuses for why Darko has played for half of the league and couldn't stick anywhere or get meaningful minutes during his prime.

Everything about Darko says "marginal bench player". Again, not much of an NBA career. And that's what he will be remembered for. None of the stuff people believe he could have done under ideal conditions, if all of the universe wasn't conspiring against him.

And for the record, I don't dislike Darko. He's irrelevant (his stats prove it). His entire NBA career has been irrelevant. He's never been an important player, even on a bad team.

1) Dwight Howard was stealing his rebounds 2) He didn't speak English and never heard a single word any NBA coach ever said 3) In his time at Center after Detroit for 6 seasons, he had a weighted average PER of 14.7 (0.3 below the NBA average) compared to Tashaun Prince's career 14.6 PER 4) Larry Brown was the translator in the above tirade. His actual comments were complimentary to the refs.